What weather conditions are best during a solar eclipse?

No question that the ideal conditions are clear skies. I observed a total eclipse in Cornwall, UK in 1999 and we were frustrated by fairly heavy cloud cover for most of the duration of the partial eclipse. Fortunately, we did have some breaks in the cloud so we did get to feel the impact of totality and experience the Sun’s corona.

An eclipse on August 21st means that the probability for clear skies is high for many people regardless of location.

What will the weather be like in my location?

At the time of writing this post, almost a month before the eclipse, we can’t know but we can look back at historical data and make a prediction about the likelihood of different weather conditions.

Closer to the time of the eclipse you can get a better idea of the prospect of clear conditions in the location that you are planning to be. We will probably have to wait until a week before the eclipse before anyone is willing to make a real prediction about your chances of having an unobscured view of the eclipse.

It’s the evening before the eclipse and the outlook is bad in my location, what should I do?

The weather is going to let some people down but if you are able to be prepare a plan B what might that involve.

Your plan A should be the location you wish to be at if weather is not an issue. If you can view it from the place that you’re staying without the need to travel then great. You don’t want to introduce controllable risk by driving to a location with only a small amount of time until the eclipse, if you can avoid it.

Our plan B will be to be prepared to wake up really early on the day of the eclipse (5am) and to drive a couple of hours east or west of our location if the weather is going to be clearly more favourable at a different site. At 5am, there is less chance of the roads being blocked by others with the same idea as us.

Don’t panic if the weather is not playing nice!

If your plan B doesn’t work (the weather followed you or you weren’t able to relocate) and you have no prospects of clear skies then what should you do.

If you are in the path of totality then still make sure that you are outside as you are still going to feel the effects of totality. The difference between thick cloud cover and thick cloud cover under the moon’s shadow is incredible. You will witness the darkness more so than you would with clear skies where the sky is reduced to the brightness of twilight.

If you have the patience then I would advise you to not take your eyes off the sky. In 2015, I witnessed a partial eclipse with my family and many people in my area gave up observing because the clouds were seemingly unforgiving. Whereas, I was determined that if there was a break in the clouds I was going to be there to see it. My kids lost interest and watched the TV coverage, the sky at night had a team in the sky above the clouds in the path of totality. Every time the clouds broke around the sun I called my kids over and they were able to experience some brief moments of the partial eclipse during the moments of maximum obscurity in our location. If you have a few adults then maybe you can take turns to watch for breaks in the clouds.

Please comment below if you have suggestions about how you can prepare to have the best conditions to view the eclipse.